This episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast features Kirsten D’Amato and Deborah Pierrel, business systems analysts for the city of Palm Springs, California, sharing how the city modernized permitting and licensing to create a more accessible, transparent, and efficient experience for both residents and staff. Kirsten and Deborah discuss Palm Springs’ transition from fragmented, paper-based processes to a unified, enterprise-wide permitting and licensing platform that connected eight departments, improved real-time visibility, and streamlined collaboration. The conversation explores the operational and community impact of going paperless, from reducing manual work and simplifying training to expanding online access and improving service delivery. Tune in to learn how breaking down silos and modernizing high-impact services helped earn Palm Springs a 2025 Tyler Excellence Award.
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, Kirsten D’Amato and Deborah Pierrel, business systems analysts for the city of Palm Springs, California, share how the city transformed permitting and licensing into a more accessible, transparent, and efficient experience for both residents and staff — a modernization effort that earned Palm Springs a 2025 Tyler Excellence Award.
Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2025 in San Antonio, the conversation explores how Palm Springs unified eight departments onto a single enterprise permitting and licensing platform, replacing fragmented, paper-based processes with a connected digital workflow. Kirsten and Deborah walk through the challenges of managing permits across siloed systems and how bringing everything into one centralized environment created real-time visibility, streamlined collaboration, and eliminated hidden data and manual workarounds.
They also discuss the impact on the community, from enabling 24/7 online access and real-time status updates to significantly reducing in-person foot traffic while still maintaining inclusive support options. Along the way, they highlight the operational benefits of going paperless, including reduced storage needs, faster processing, improved scalability, and simpler onboarding and training for staff.
Whether you work in community development, IT, or local government operations, this episode offers practical insight into breaking down departmental silos, modernizing high-impact services, and building a permitting and licensing experience that better supports staff, residents, and long-term growth.
This episode also spotlights Tyler Connect 2026, where innovation and collaboration take center stage. Taking place April 7-10 at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. Connect brings together public sector professionals from across the country to explore new solutions, share ideas, and strengthen communities. It’s a week dedicated to learning, connection, and imagining what’s possible for the future of government technology. Explore registration details and early bird pricing in the show notes to start planning your Connect 2026 experience.
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Kirsten D’Amato: Now it’s one spot where everybody can see everything, there’s nothing hidden, and you’re able to actually process the data and not get stuck in the nuance of trying to figure out where things are hidden and where that one plan is scrolled up in the back room. It’s amazing.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, this is the Tyler Tech Podcast where we explore the trends, technologies, and people shaping the public sector. I’m your host, Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining us. In this episode recorded live at Tyler Connect 2025 in San Antonio, we’re highlighting how the city of Palm Springs, California, turned one of its most visible touchpoints with residents — permitting and licensing — into a more accessible, transparent, and efficient experience.
Joining us to share how they did it and what they’ve learned along the way are Kirsten D’Amato and Deborah Pierrel, business systems analysts for the city of Palm Springs, one of this year’s Tyler Excellence Award winners. Kirsten and Deborah have so many great things to share, so let’s dive right into the conversation.
Congratulations on the award. And thank you for joining us today.
Kirsten D’Amato: It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you, Josh.
Josh Henderson: Awesome. So, to get us started, can you tell us a little bit about the challenges Palm Springs was facing when it came to permitting and licensing before this transformation happened?
Kirsten D’Amato: We had eight different apartments spread throughout the city, taking paper applications and responding to constituents via email. It was hard to track, and it was even harder to stay on top of it and to process the applications. And with EPL, we’ve got one source to manage it all.
Deborah Pierrel: I can even piggyback off that and say, as a constituent, I was having problems with my contractors and solar people getting the permits through, and I had to intervene and actually interacted with Kirsten. And, and so I have seen the improvement from the side of the community as well.
Josh Henderson: That’s fantastic. Now when you decided to make this change, what were the goals for the project initially? What were you hoping to achieve for both internal teams and for the residents of Palm Springs?
Kirsten D’Amato: Ending departmental silos, so being able to be on one platform where data isn’t hidden or kind of safeguarded but having still the access for our community to be able to see in real time where their projects are at, not having to call a phone number and hoping that we call them back.
Deborah Pierrel: Yeah. I think she pretty much said it in a nutshell. And it’s given accessible, transparent data internally and externally, so that’s good.
Josh Henderson: Absolutely. And now, ultimately, you chose enterprise permitting and licensing for this foundation for the transformation. What made this the right solution for Palm Springs?
Kirsten D’Amato: It felt like an easy choice knowing that other cities in the valley were going to it as well. So, we would have camaraderie throughout the valley with all of the different municipalities, but also seeing that we already had EERP, knowing that they would integrate seamlessly and not have to be yet another integration and another outside source with another support team. It was nice to be able to have one place for everything and know that we would have the camaraderie with the other municipalities.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. Yep. Breaking up those silos I often hear is a huge part of it all. But and you mentioned it, but one of the most impressive aspects to me about this story is how you integrated, you know, these eight different departments into one seamless workflow. That seems like a huge deal. In what ways did that improve internal collaboration and efficiency?
Kirsten D’Amato: Absolutely. We had an office where hundreds of customers, constituents, contractors alike would come in with their paper plans, and they had to start at one division, and then they’d put their name on a list to go to the next division, and then they’d put their name on the list to go to the last division. And that’s only three out of the eight, so that didn’t include code and fire and special programs and things like that that also need to be a part of the process. So you have all of that happening via email and phone calls, hopefully just to update the constituent, and now it’s one spot where everybody can see everything, there’s nothing hidden, and you’re able to actually process the data and not get stuck in the nuance of trying to figure out where things are hidden and where that one plan is scrolled up in the back room.
It’s amazing.
Deborah Pierrel: Transparency of where things are and the pathway. So, who has what is no longer a question.
Kirsten D’Amato: Yes.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. I’m sure it has solved a lot of headaches.
Deborah Pierrel: And saved a lot of money.
Josh Henderson: And saved a lot of money. Yep.
Kirsten D’Amato: And from the IT side, I don’t have eight different applications that I’m managing anymore.
So, from my side as well, not even having to see the constituents all of the time and being a part of that atmosphere. But for us, not having when somebody comes in for a new department, not having to create eight different accounts on eight different softwares and remembering, well, what permissions do I do here versus what permissions do I give here is huge.
Josh Henderson: Love to hear it. Love to hear it. But of course, internally, that’s great. All of those efficiencies are great. Ultimately, working in local government, the residents are the number one priority. Right? So, can you share how this new system has improved the overall resident experience in Palm Springs?
Deborah Pierrel: So, we have a diverse, vibrant, and very vested community. That’s they’re vocal too, for all the V words, if I can. And it’s actually awesome to see that kind of interaction.
The feedback, both through our website and other channels, has been amazing. It’s not perfect, like implementing EPL, but the strides that we’ve made and the changes in, as you mentioned, 100% online applications versus in foot to what Kirsten just mentioned. And the time and effort have been paramount. And it’s been very good feedback from the community. And it’s really nice to see. I mean, that’s what we’re there to do, serve the community.
Kirsten D’Amato: We still get people who come in, and they want to ask questions. And we have that ability within the city. But the amazing thing is they also have that online portal. So, at two o’clock in the afternoon when our inspectors are out in the field, they don’t have to wait around till the next business day to see if their inspections are going to get scheduled because it used to be a voicemail system. And we’d check them in the morning, we’d schedule everything, and then we’d check them again the next morning. So, it’s real time, and it’s efficient because they’re not waiting on staff as much as they are able to see all of the data at once whenever they feel like it.
Josh Henderson: And I’ve heard a lot too about how, while residents, you know, might come around to it, initially, changes might be hard for residents. Did you get any of that feedback right off the bat?
Deborah Pierrel: Of course. So, our community, like I said, is very diverse. And our demographic, it is it can be a little older than some other communities … a little bit. And I think the fact that it became entirely online probably caused some people to think twice about it or should be a little fearful of it. But in the end, we worked through the bugs, thanks to the amazing entire city's team, talking to the constituents and dealing with them as they came up.
And I feel like the welcome way has surpassed fear at all from it.
Kirsten D’Amato: Absolutely. I think an easy thing to look at is that we did reduce in-foot traffic by about 48%, but that’s not to say that people still don’t come in. And we do allow for that, and we allow for the questions and for them to come in. As much as we it’s easy for us to say, no, just go apply online. We want to be welcoming and not force change on them and be, it has to be this way. We don’t want to be that rigid. But allowing for both options and really allowing for the openness and easability and accessibility.
Josh Henderson: And, you know, some people might not have tech access too. So that’s there’s there are ways to go about that and go work around that, but you’re servicing a lot of different types of people.
Deborah Pierrel: And we do have self-service. If they do physically come in, they can actually go online with assistance right there. Okay. And at our libraries too.
Kirsten D’Amato: Yeah. Have a few different kiosks set up throughout the city.
Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Big news. Tyler Connect 2026 is heading to Las Vegas.
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Jade Champion: Visit tylertech.com/connect to register today or click the link in our show notes.
Josh Henderson: We’ll see you at Tyler Connect 2026, where we empower, collaborate, and imagine what’s possible for the public sector in Vegas.
Jade Champion: Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Josh Henderson: One thing we often hear too is that going paperless is a major achievement for government agencies. What has been the impact of eliminating paper applications and plans?
If you were to say, like, one or two things that…
Deborah Pierrel: Storage, money, lack of good data in one place. I could mention a lot.
Kirsten D’Amato: There are so many benefits to it. We truly had storage rooms filled with paper plans that couldn’t be discarded or anything because they were on active permits. They were on active plan numbers. And we’ve been able to go and turn that into three new offices. But even just that, not being required to have job cards anymore, that was a paper that we were printing every single day. Every time our inspectors went out, they were signing a paper job card, and now it can just be emailed to the constituent if they want it, or they can just see the status of everything online.
Josh Henderson: That’s wonderful. I wanted to kind of shift back to internal processes. Obviously, workforce shortages is a huge deal within the public sector. How has this system, how has this implementation, how has it helped kind of make staff more efficient and simplified in sort of like training, retention? Do you find it’s created more ease in that in that regard?
Deborah Pierrel: I think as we as we move forward and each day we get a little better at it and a broader understanding of it, I think as we build those subject matter experts in each department and document all of the training for us and the way we’ve set it up, that it just gets easier and easier overall. And then that saves time, money and resources as we continue on. So, it’s definitely had a large impact throughout the municipality itself. Also, the way the departments work together.
So, when you’re crossing over from a permit or a business license, which both use EPL, and you’re in the finance department or you’re in the building department, the information being accessible at your fingertips versus finding a human, hoping they’re not off, looking for the paper is exponentially. And then I think I have to add to that that we’re growing. Our municipality has gone through exponential growth since COVID started. And, while it’s mellowed, we’re still growing.
And so, it allows us to scale much easier.
Kirsten D’Amato: Yeah, we had eight departments all using different softwares. So, getting everybody on one software with one point of reference, not only did that ease the rest of our onboarding, so every time we bring on the new employee, but even just research time. So, it’s huge for our staff as well. It saves time, and it truly saves money in the process.
Josh Henderson: Wonderful. Wonderful. Now for other cities or counties listening who may be dealing with fragmented processes or looking to improve resident interactions as well, what advice would you offer them based on the experience that you all have had in Palm Springs?
Deborah Pierrel: Well, a no brainer in the beginning is if you don’t have a system, do it.
I would say that preparing the plan for how you do it and then working the plan and carrying it through, making changes if you need to as you go through, but pretty much making sure you have a plan for how to implement it. Followed up with the documentation and training.
Training, when I say that, isn’t just internal. It’s the community. It’s how you put the word out. It’s the website.
It’s the PR, the newspapers assisting. It’s everything. So really, that communication and that training from all aspects, I would say, is important. And then just do it.
Kirsten D’Amato: Yeah, I believe paralysis by analysis is something I’ve heard so often right now, but it’s true. A lot of times we overthink things to the point of never doing them. And we certainly didn’t make all of the right decisions and we certainly didn’t do all of the all of the training we should have, but we made a choice to do something, and that has projected us and given us the platform to continue to grow with our city and allowing our city to grow with us and letting them provide some feedback as well.
Josh Henderson: That’s really, really great. Now as you continue to use Tyler’s solutions, what opportunities do you see to keep improving or expanding the impact within the city of Palm Springs?
Deborah Pierrel: Oh, I see a lot. I have to say that coming this year to Connect was a really, so far, great experience, even better than last year. And I think the reason is I’m seeing some focus from Tyler on immediate future needs such as vendor access, such as AI in the right places, such as support for when we need it and how we need it.
Those are all components that I’ve heard resonate through this session of Connect. And I’m looking forward to working with Tyler on that. So, for me, I think it’s the vendor helping both procurement and finance. It’s the AI will help us a lot.
Kirsten D’Amato: I agree. And the brand new Civic Access rolling out to our constituents, they’re going to love it. One of the things is the contractors want the easability of just being able to use it on their cell phone. And I think the new design is really going to provide a UI that is good for that.
Josh Henderson: Wonderful. Well, Kirsten and Deborah, thank you so much for sharing Palm Springs’ story. Congratulations again on the Tyler Excellence Award and thank you so much for joining me on the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Deborah Pierrel: It was our entire team and thank you.
Josh Henderson: As we heard today, transforming, permitting, and licensing is about creating a seamless, transparent experience that supports residents, strengthens internal collaboration, and helps the community grow with confidence.
Kirsten and Deborah shared how Palm Springs unified eight departments, eliminated paper workflows, and opened the door to real time visibility for residents and staff alike. Their commitment to accessibility, efficiency, and service is a big part of why Palm Springs was honored with a 2025 Tyler Excellence Award.
If you’d like to learn more about the solutions discussed in today’s episode, check out the show notes for additional resources.
We’d love to hear your feedback. Fill out the listener survey linked in the notes or reach out anytime at podcast@tylertech.com. And be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the show so you never miss an episode. For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast.